2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante

 What It Is: A lightly covered-up prototype of the inevitable convertible version of the Aston Martin Vanquish, the brand’s flagship coupe. Following Aston’s nomenclature, the roofless Vanquish will be known as the Vanquish Volante. Just as the hardtop model replaced the DBS last year, this topless Vanquish will take over for the DBS Volante.

Why It Matters: Unless you’re bathing in pools of money like Scrooge McDuck, the Vanquish Volante probably isn’t on your shopping list. However, from Aston Martin’s perspective, it’s important to have a convertible iteration of the Vanquish for high-end sun-worshipping clientele. As an added bonus, the lack of a roof makes it easier to enjoy the aural V-12 bliss sure to emanate from the Volante’s tailpipes. (That’s reason enough to build the thing, if you ask us.

Our spy shots reveal, the Vanquish Volante will eschew a folding hardtop in favor of a conventional fabric roof. This should keep weight increases to a minimum, which is important since we’re likely to see some increases due to additional reinforcements required to make up for the missing roof. The images show a unique rear deck lid, which is longer than the one on the coupe, as well as Aston Martin’s new rear spoiler design for the Vanquish. Otherwise, the Vanquish coupe and new Vanquish Volante will be identical. Under the mostly carbon fiber body is Aston Martin’s latest platform design, based around its VH principle of designing cars with continuous updates.

Power comes from a 6.0-liter V-12, rated at 565 horsepower and 457 pound-feet of torque. This sends drive strictly to the rear wheels, via a six-speed Touchtronic 2 automatic transmission. The wheels measure in at 20 inches in diameter and are shod with Pirelli P Zero tires measuring 255/35 up front and 305/30 in the rear. The brakes are carbon ceramic units. Due to its extra weight, expect performance of the Vanquish Volante to be just a tad off the pace of the coupe, which goes from 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds and reaches a top speed of 183 mph. Inside, only the finest woods, leather and metal trim will be utilized, and customers will have the choice of either two or 2+2 seating configurations.

Finally, look for pricing to creep up only slightly on the $290k starting price of the DBS Volante, which the new Vanquish Volante replaces. While you await the arrival of the 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, hit this link to read our first drive of the coupe.